How to make the iPhone keyboard bigger
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The iPhone 12 mini and the soon-to-be iPhone 13 mini are quite the rare species in 2021 – tiny smartphones with flagship specs. But the convenience of a small phone comes with a problem many people will face – the on-screen iPhone 12 mini keyboard is too tiny.
Or maybe you own the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro or even the iPhone 12 Pro Max and you're still having trouble with the keys being too tiny for you to comfortably type on. Alternatively, you may be rocking an older Apple smartphone like iPhone SE or SE 2 (2020), which are also packing small displays.
Well, thankfully there's a solution that works the same for all modern iPhones...
If you've searched "how to make the iPhone 12 mini keyboard bigger" or any iPhone's touch keyboard for that matter, the first thing you'll likely notice is that it's impossible to resize the default touch keyboard on its own.
But what we can do is change your iPhone's display settings in a way that will make everything a bit larger and easier to tap precisely, including the keyboard.
On your iPhone open the "Settings" app, scroll down to find the "Display & Brightness" option, then tap it. Afterwards scroll down to the bottom and tap "View" under "Display Zoom".
Here you'll see two options, a "Standard" one and a "Zoomed" one. Tap on "Zoomed", then tap "Set" on the top right corner of the screen.
Your iPhone's display will briefly turn off, then back on again, after which icons, menus and the iPhone keyboard will be larger. As an example, below is the iPhone 12 mini keyboard before and after enabling "Display Zoom":
This is a particularly useful feature to enable if you want to make the keyboard larger on iPhone 7, iPhone 11 or any newer small iPhone, quick and easy; it's not just invaluable for certain iPhone mini users.
There's an alternative option for getting a larger iPhone keyboard, and that is to install a third party keyboard app. Unfortunately Google's Gboard doesn't have the option to make it larger or smaller on iPhone like it does on Android, but other keyboard apps do.
Paid apps like Larger Keyboard or XL Keyboard might do what you're looking for, but for the purposes of this tutorial we'll go with the free TuneKey app.
Either click the link above to download TuneKey on your iPhone, or head on over manually to the App Store and search for "tunekey", then tap "Get".
Once TuneKey is installed on your iPhone, open the Settings app, scroll down until you find "TuneKey", tap it, then tap "Keyboards" and enable "TuneKey".
Now open the TuneKey app and tap "Adjust Key Size". By default the keys will be at their largest, but you can make them smaller here if you wish to.
Now you can proceed to open any app on your iPhone where texting was an issue, and when the default keyboard pops up, simply press the "Globe" icon in the bottom left corner until TuneKey shows up, offering you the bigger iPhone keyboard you've been after.
Or maybe you own the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro or even the iPhone 12 Pro Max and you're still having trouble with the keys being too tiny for you to comfortably type on. Alternatively, you may be rocking an older Apple smartphone like iPhone SE or SE 2 (2020), which are also packing small displays.
If you've searched "how to make the iPhone 12 mini keyboard bigger" or any iPhone's touch keyboard for that matter, the first thing you'll likely notice is that it's impossible to resize the default touch keyboard on its own.
But what we can do is change your iPhone's display settings in a way that will make everything a bit larger and easier to tap precisely, including the keyboard.
How to make the keyboard bigger on iPhone 12 mini or any other iPhone
This method will work on:
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 mini
- iPhone SE (2020)
- iPhone 11 / Pro / Max
- iPhone X / Xr / Xs / Xs MAX
- iPhone 8 / 8 Plus
- iPhone 7 / 7 Plus
- iPhone 6s / 6s Plus
On your iPhone open the "Settings" app, scroll down to find the "Display & Brightness" option, then tap it. Afterwards scroll down to the bottom and tap "View" under "Display Zoom".
Here you'll see two options, a "Standard" one and a "Zoomed" one. Tap on "Zoomed", then tap "Set" on the top right corner of the screen.
Your iPhone's display will briefly turn off, then back on again, after which icons, menus and the iPhone keyboard will be larger. As an example, below is the iPhone 12 mini keyboard before and after enabling "Display Zoom":
The iPhone 12 mini keyboard before and after enabling Display Zoom
This is a particularly useful feature to enable if you want to make the keyboard larger on iPhone 7, iPhone 11 or any newer small iPhone, quick and easy; it's not just invaluable for certain iPhone mini users.
If you need help with the steps above, we also have them here in video form:
iPhone keyboard not big enough, still?
The following method will work on any iPhone model
There's an alternative option for getting a larger iPhone keyboard, and that is to install a third party keyboard app. Unfortunately Google's Gboard doesn't have the option to make it larger or smaller on iPhone like it does on Android, but other keyboard apps do.
Paid apps like Larger Keyboard or XL Keyboard might do what you're looking for, but for the purposes of this tutorial we'll go with the free TuneKey app.
Once TuneKey is installed on your iPhone, open the Settings app, scroll down until you find "TuneKey", tap it, then tap "Keyboards" and enable "TuneKey".
Now open the TuneKey app and tap "Adjust Key Size". By default the keys will be at their largest, but you can make them smaller here if you wish to.
Now you can proceed to open any app on your iPhone where texting was an issue, and when the default keyboard pops up, simply press the "Globe" icon in the bottom left corner until TuneKey shows up, offering you the bigger iPhone keyboard you've been after.
Things that are NOT allowed: